Coventry Bees beat Poole in first leg of grand final

Alun Rossiter was hoping for a bigger lead ahead of the return leg

Coventry Bees maintained their bid for the Elite League title with a 51-39 victory over Poole Pirates in the first leg of the grand final at Brandon.

It means the Bees will take a 12-point lead into the decider at Poole next Monday (4 October).

Coventry coped best with the difficult track conditions, Krzysztof Kasprzak top-scoring for the home side with 11.

Bees burst into a 21-9 lead in the opening five races but the points were shared across the next 10 heats.

Several riders wiped out as they struggled to get to grips with the rain-affected track, not least in the final race of the night which had to be run three times following a couple of exclusions.

Coventry manager Alun Rossiter was pleased with the result.

"Fourteen at one stage was looking like the ideal number but unfortunately we didn't quite get there," he told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

"Twelve points against a side of that calibre is very good, but conditions played a part."